The Garage Completed

Well, I'm not entirely happy with the corrugated metal, but it worked, sort of. For my next building, I'll make some corrugated metal by scribing it over a piece of Evergreen sheet styrene - metal siding. Anyway, the doors on the garage open and close, although the crude hinge doesn't look too great open.

Oh, and I got my wife a new digital camera (a Casio Exilim S880), which is taking substantiallyl better pictures than my old Canon Powershot did. Anyway, here it is:

Building a small garage - part one

I wanted to build a small outbuilding - I chose to model a garage. I wanted to have a ramshackle look, so I thought of using corrugated metal doors. I know that you can order expensive corrugated metal in Model Railroad scales, but I thought I'd go the more satisfying route of making my own (not to mention cheaper).

So I rolled out some Sculpey (a polymer clay that hardens in an oven at 250 degrees) in a flat disk, and used a butter knife (don't tell my wife) to press parallel lines into the surface. Then I baked it to harden it. I did this at 11pm at night and couldn't tell exactly what I was doing (don't ask me how bad my vision is). When I got it out of the oven in the morning, I was both pleased and disconcerted - pleased because the ridges came out just about right, but a little disconcerted by how badly a couple of spots had bubbled up - I probably got a few bubbles in the polymer clay when I rolled it out.

I got some disposable aluminum cake pans from the grocery, and cut out a few rectangular pieces from the bottom of the pans. I then aligned the sheets on the form I'd made, and embossed the ridges (corrugations) on by running the tip of a ball point pen down the lines (letting the point press down where the depressions were in the form). I was pretty pleased with the results, especially after I painted a few wash coats on them. The scale seems about right too, although I don't have a scale comparison photo to hand. Below is a dim photo of the form and 3 sheets of corrugated metal I made from it. So far, so good.


Now, on to the building itself. It will be a simple low garage, barely wide enough for a couple of smallish vehicles. I made it out of foam-core, simple and straight forward.

I'd like for the doors to open/close, so I will figure out a method of hinging them somehow - two sheets of corrugated metal that swing open from each side, nothing too fancy.

Other Middle Eastern Terrain - Palms

So what about some other terrain for BFEvo? Well, I've already got a load of singly mounted 4" cake decoration palm trees (Sugarcraft Palm Trees), but I like the container mounted trees shown in the BFEvo Advanced Rulebook too - as both hard cover and easily movable terrain. I've built a couple of concrete median containers containing the smaller palms, and an octagonal container with a few of the larger palms.


Here is a composite shot showing several of the palms in containers - the median container on the left, the octagonal container with 3 larger palms to the right rear. A coule of the singly mounted 4" palms are on the far right. Shown for scale are a Corgi Tactical Strike 1/64th scale Bradley, an MEA Technical, and a PLA infantryman.


Sorry for all the poor quality photos - I'm shooting in the evening light, but at least it is better than my recent shots, taken in my dim, dark basement.

Next, a small garage, with homemade corrugated metal doors...

Building a Mosque

One of the first buildings I wanted for my table was a mosque. I've looked at a lot of pictures of mosques in the middle east and couldn't find one single prototype building that I like best (I wanted to build several ;-) ) and which would be easy to construct. Since I also like the mosque in the BFEvo Advanced Rulebook, which is pretty large yet has a compact footprint at the same time, I decided to build a similar mosque.

So I'm constructing a mosque that will be similar to that one. I'm constructing mine out of cork-tile board, foam core, balsa, spackling paste, and a floral foam block from which to shape the dome.



First the basic shell, showing the floor around the outside, leaving the internal space open to the ceiling. Dang but it was painful to cut out all those arched windows!:







The roof, showing the dome shaped from florist foam and coated in spackle. I painted mine blue (rooftop still unpainted thought), as many in Iraq are blue. You could also go with gold:








The front "portico" or entranceway, shown from the rear (inside):







And finally, the assembled mosque, ready for painting. I still plan to add a minaret (tower), but this will be added a bit later.

Building a simple Cork Building

Inspired by Matakishi's work ( View Matakishi's Cork Building Article ), I've decided to build a selection of Middle Eastern buildings using his techniques.

Instead of the more sturdy compressed floor tiles he's used, I'm using easier to find cork bulletin board tiles for my buildings. I started off by painting to the tiles to stiffen them, as they are a bit crumbly when cutting if not stiffened up a bit. I spray painted one side of the tiles a primer gray, but after seeing how much paint soaked into the cork (and seeing how quick a new can of spray paint ran out), I got some flat acrylic enamel and brushed on a coat on the other side.

Above is a photo of a small anonymous building that I constructed as a trial. Still needs final painting and weathering at this point. Included for scale comparison are a couple of the BFEvo figures - a PLA Infantryman and a MEA Technical.

Next, on to a bigger project - the mosque!

BattleField Evolution

Well, my most recent gaming project is Battlefield Evolution. Battlefield Evolution (BFEvo) is published by Mongoose Publishing (MGP).

A game of "near future" modern combat, BFEvo is a fast paced game of combat nominally set roughly in the next decade.

MGP has also produced a line of prepainted (!) 28mm figures and vehicles for the game.

Figures style is closer in proportion to 1/72 plastics than the 28mm metal miniatures most gamers are used to. So MGP figures, while measuring 28mm on the Barrett scale (foot to eye), will look a bit odd next to 28s from other manufacturers.

The vehicles' scale is approximately 1/64. While small to some gamers' tastes, the scale looks appropriate next to the figures.

I've read much discussion, both in favor of, as well as against MGP's scale decision. While I wish there was greater compatibility with other manufacturers ranges, I love the MGP proportion and scale. I've never been a huge fan of "stocky" 28mm and greatly prefer realistically proportioned figures. And I'm very much in favor of buying prepainted miniatures, given the other demans of Real Life(tm).

As is typical for me, I've jumped into this project with both feet. I've purchased large forces for two of the four factions (USMC and the Middle Eastern Alliance (MEA) ), and have started building middle eastern style terrain. More on that later...